Clothes-pin.



, 0. M SHANE.

CLOTEBS PIN.

APPLICATION FILED JUNE 16,1906.

Patented Feb. 28, 1911.

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Witnesses.

OWEN IVIGSHANE, 0F BUFFALO, NEW YORK.

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Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Feb. 28, 1911.

Application filed June 15, 1906. Serial No. 321,897.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, OWEN MOSHANE, a citizen of the United States, residing at Buffalo, in the county of Erie and State of New York, have invented a certain new and useful Improvement in Clothes-Pins, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to an improved clothes pin and the object of the invention is to produce a pin of this character that will hold the clothes separately from and out of contact with the clothes line to avoid soiling recently cleaned and damp clothes by contact with a dirty rope and also to obviate the danger of tearing or manipulating delicate fabrics through the act of looping them over a line and forcing a clothes pin thereon or through strain thereon while drying.

The invention also relates to certain details of construction all of which will be fully and clearly hereinafter described and claimed, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, in which Figure l is an edge view of the improved clothes pin. Fig. 2 is a side view of the improved clothes pin. Fig. 3 is a side view of the pin showing the manner of supporting an article by two edges from a wash line, also showing a section through the line. Fig. 4: is a longitudinal section through the improved clothes pin on the line Ml Fig. 2.

The form illustrated in the drawings consists of a head portion 13, and a body portion having two longitudinal slots 14: and 15, a very thin central tongue 16 projecting from the head portion between the slots and two side members 17 and 18 which are separated from the tongue by the slots 14 and 15. The side member 17, is shorter than the member 18 and both the side members 17 and 18 are cut diagonally or beveled at their lower ends at 19 and 20, to facilitate the entrance of the rope and clothes. With this form of pin the clothes are inserted in the slot 15 between the tongue 16 and the side l member 18 and the rope in the slot 14:, between the tongue 16, and the side member 17 In the form illustrated the tongue is of even thinness throughout, (being very thin,

and having two flat side surfaces) so that it will yield or bend extremely easily under lateral pressure to either side from its normal position between the thick rigid side members and thus take up nearly all of the strain of placing the pin on the clothes line and gripping the fabric to be suspended from the line.

The advantage of this construction is that when a fabric is placed in one slot and the pin forced upon a clothes line as illustrated in Fig. 8 the tongue owing to its thinness and elasticity is bent and forced into contact with an appreciable portion of the fabric, in fact all of that portion of the fabric located between the tongue and side member up to the beveled end of the side member so that the fabric is gripped between two approximately plane surfaces and the clamping pressure is distributed over a comparatively large surface of the fabric instead of being located at a single point which prevents the strain or tearing of the fabric when the clothes line is hung in the open or in a breeze or in any situation where the fabric is exposed to a pulling strain.

Another advantage is that the danger of splitting the pin through abnormal separation of the side members is overcome owing to the thick and comparatively rigid char acter of said side members and the fact that the strain of fitting the pin upon a clothes line is almost completely borne by the thin and elastic tongue.

Further advantages of this construction are that it provides a secure grip for the clothes line and it holds the fabric entirely out of contact with the clothes line.

In hanging up clothes on a clothes line with this improved pin, the pin is fitted over the clothes line with the line passing through one slot and the fabric gripped in another slot and held wholly below the horizontal plane of the clothes line so that it is utterly impossible for newly washed fabrics to come in contact with a soiled or dirty clothes line unless blown over the line by the wind.

I claim.

A clothes pin provided with longitudinal slots and having a central member comprising at least one thin and elastic tongue, opposite flat side surfaces and two side members considerably thicker and more rigid than the central member separated from said central member by the longitudinal slots; one of said side members being shorter than the elastic member, and the other the same length as said elastic member, both of said side members having their lower ends cut diagonally downwardly and outwardly, said elastic member being adapted to be bent to extend in close and continuous proximity with the inner surface of one of the side members for a considerable portion of its length whereby when a clothes line is inserted and gripped in one slot between the elastic member and one side member, the elastic member will be sprung toward the side member, and will contact with, grip and clamp for a considerable and continuous extent between itself and the side member nearly all of that portion of a fabric inserted in the other slot located between the elastic member and the side member, substantially as set forth.

OYVEN MGSHANE.

Witnesses: V s

L. M. SANGSTER GEO. A. NEUBAUER.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents, Washington, 1). C. 

